W3C announces Beihang University as a new center for W3C technical staff and leadership activities in China. W3C anticipates that a dedicated presence in China will enhance opportunities for collaboration among Chinese companies, Web developers, and research institutes, and W3C's full international community, including Members from more than 40 countries.
"China is in the midst of an innovation boom," said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. "In IT, Chinese companies have excelled in instant messaging, online games, smartphones, and search, and there is a flourishing Chinese browser ecosystem. In the past two years W3C has benefited from greater Chinese participation, and we look forward to that trend accelerating through the efforts of local industry and Beihang University. Global participation in W3C enables our community to identify global needs for the Web, and drive solutions."
In its new capacity, Beihang University invites Chinese Web developers, industry, and academia to assume a greater role in global Web innovation.

Growing Economy, Growing Use of the Web in China

Today China is the world's second largest economy, with a growing share of online activities. Nearly half of the population in China has an Internet connection, of which a majority is broadband. 66% of connected users access the Internet through mobile phones. The Web Index 2012 indicates that "online shopping represents the largest growth segment of Internet use in China," and an April 2012 report found that "[Around 2015] China will likely become the largest online retail market in the world, with close to 10 percent of retail sales occurring online."
W3C has seen corresponding growth in Chinese participation, due in large part to the efforts of Beihang University.
"With six years of experience operating the W3C China Office, Beihang University has deeply devoted itself to introducing, promoting and facilitating Web standards in China," said Professor Jinpeng Huai, President of Beihang University. "As the wave of information technology innovation and its application continues to rise in China, information technology and industrialization have become an important theme of China's development. An increasing number of standardized Web technologies have been embraced by Chinese enterprises and academic institutions, and many Chinese organizations are starting to play an important role in noted international standards bodies such as W3C."
Now, Beihang University, MIT, ERCIM, and Keio University are jointly responsible for administering the activities of the Consortium.
"Today, with strong support from W3C and the community, Beihang University becomes the fourth institution to host W3C activities," added Professor Huai. "This is an important step of the internationalization strategy of Beihang University, creating a platform to help Chinese industry participate in the Web standards ecosystem. We shall take this as the new starting point and continue to make contributions for building the Open Web Platform together with global industry, developer communities, research institutes, standards bodies and other related parties."